


Between the Strand and the Sea

by Scytale



Category: Original Work, Sailor and Siren - Kuinka (Song)
Genre: Bards, F/F, Music, Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 19:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18947416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scytale/pseuds/Scytale
Summary: After a life at court, Lynet settles down to a life of solitude, music, and gardening. She doesn't expect an old friend to show up.





	Between the Strand and the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kiraly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/gifts).



The knock on the door came near dusk.

Opening the door, Lynet had expected one of the villagers or perhaps even a messenger from the court.

Instead, she saw a ghost.

Seonaid Temestris studied her from the doorstep.

"Hello, Lyn," she said.

Seonaid had grown tall and lean in the last seven years, her black hair cut short. She wore a man's linen shirt and breeches and carried a sword at her side.

But it was her. When Lynet looked at her, she could see the shadow of the girl that she'd known in the fishing village —  lanky and restless with a flash of fire in her grey eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Lyn asked.

"My ship was stopped here, and they told me that the Queen's Bard had left the capital. I wanted to know if you were all right."

She hadn't expected Seonaid to care. It had been seven years, after all, and neither of them were the girls from the fishing village, who had sworn to be friends forever. They hadn't kept that promise —  even then, the things they'd wanted from life had been too different. A bard had found Lynet and taken her away from the village; Seonaid had found a ship.

"I've resigned my position," Lynet said.

Seonaid frowned. "Why? I thought you would have been happy."

"Dreams are a little more complicated than I expected when I was sixteen."

Silence fell between them.

Seonaid broke it first. "I won't bother you anymore, if you don't want me to."

Seonaid would go if she asked. All Lynet had to do was say one word, and Seonaid would pass out of her life again, leaving Lynet to her solitude and her garden, the small world that she had cultivated.

"No.” Lynet stepped back from the door. “Come on in."

* * *

Lynet  _ had _ been happy at first.

As a girl growing up in her village, becoming a bard —  the Queen's own — hadn't even been something she dared to dream about. Back then, seeing the world and hearing its songs already seemed like too much to ask for.

Queen Dorotea had been a young girl in a court of hungry wolves, and Lynet's days soon became filled with politicking, with intrigue, and the work it took to keep her queen alive.

All of that was part of a bard's job, of course -- but in performing those duties, she’d lost the music that had been her reason for becoming a bard in the first place.

So she had left the court. She wasn't needed any more; Dorotea's court was stable, and Lynet's replacement was doing well.

Lynet bought a cottage by the bay and settled there. Life had taken on a rhythm again. By the crashing sea, Lynet relearned how to repair her own roof, to repaint the walls, and to manage a garden. At night, she played the music that had gathered in unread folios for years at the capital, as well as the ballads and common songs of her youth.

She was far enough from town that no one bothered her much. She had few visitors, though she received letters from her queen, her allies at court, and some new correspondents at the Bardic Colleges.

By the time spring passed, her roof no longer leaked, and her garden boxes filled with neat rows of plants. If she was sometimes lonely, it wasn't important —  she'd learned the knack of isolation as a girl, when she'd left her village and entered a world of bards and nobility.

She counted herself content.

Or so she told herself until Seonaid Temestris had shown up at her door.

* * *

Over the next few months, Seonaid came to visit her every few weeks, smelling of salt and the sea. She captained her own ship now, she told Lynet, but she came by whenever she could.

And to Lynet's surprise, they resumed a friendship.

They would walk along the coast, sharing stories: Seonaid had misadventures upon the sea to share, which she told as well as any bard, and Lynet offered her stories of the court in exchange. Sometimes, Seonaid helped in the garden, digging her fingers deep into the earth to pull up the stubborn weeds and swearing up a storm.

"You haven't improved at gardening," Lynet said.

Seonaid tossed a dandelion at her. A smile tugged at her lips. "I've been at sea, Lyn. We don't plant flowers in pretty little boxes."

Once, Seonaid came over for supper and brought with her a bottle of Verrali wine.

"I thought we could share it," she said. "It was a gift."

"A lucky gift," Lynet said. Verrali red was expensive, prized even in the court.

Seonaid smiled. "I've always been lucky."

They shared the bottle beside the crackling fire. Afterwards, warmed by the wine and the company, Lynet played a ballad of a lord who lost his lover.

Seonaid watched her lazily. "That reminds me of a song I know about a selkie girl."

She sang in a rich alto. “I'm a maid upon the land, but a grey seal in the sea. I cannot live upon the strand, but my heart will sing to thee.”

Lynet looked at her in surprise. "I haven't heard that one before."

"It's a sailor song. I learned it at a port in the Western Sea."

Lynet sat up straighter.

"Sing it for me again," she said. "I want to learn it."

She made Seonaid teach her more sailor songs after that, and when Seonaid next returned, Lynet presented her a sheaf of papers with a flourish.

Seonaid looked down at the paper. "You wrote down the words to the songs I taught you?" She pointed at the bars and symbols below each line of words. "What's this?"

"Music notation," Lynet said. "It tells you what the melody is." She traced the music notes on a line and hummed it for Seonaid.

"I'm planning to collect as many of those songs as I can. They're part of our history, our musical tradition, and they should be recorded."

Seonaid was watching her, her brows drawn.

"What?" Lynet asked.

An odd smile sat on Seonaid's face. "I just haven't seen you this excited since I first arrived."

Lynet flushed.

Every visit after that, Seonaid brought her at least another song that she'd learned from the crew and the taverns she'd visited.

The desk in Lynet's cottage filled with neatly-inked papers recording the songs of the sea and its sailors, and the days that slipped by seemed full of sunlight and melody.

* * *

She sent a copy of her notes to a friend at the Bardic Colleges and received a sheaf of notes collecting regional variations on the words.

Impatiently, she waited for Seonaid to return from another sea voyage so that she could show her.

She was in the garden when Seonaid finally came by. Her right arm and shoulder were bandaged.

Lynet's eyes widened.

"What happened?" she asked, hurrying to Seonaid's side. "Are you all right?"

"I'm all right, Lyn," Seonaid said. She took Lynet's hand with her good hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"What happened?"

"It was just an accident."

Lynet stared at her for a moment.

"Seonaid," she said finally. "I was the Queen of Irria's spymaster for years. I know you've been a pirate for the last five years. And I want to know what happened and who did this to you."

Seonaid froze. "How?"

"I had someone watching you," she said. "Watching over you too."

Seonaid was silent for a moment. Then she said, "I always thought I was just lucky." She sighed. "It was a dispute between captains, Lynet, over the distribution of treasure. Just something minor."

"A fight in which you got stabbed." Lyn said flatly.

"It was to first blood," Seonaid said. "Leave it, Lyn. I'm fine. What I want to know is —  why?  Why did you have someone watching me?”

The wind rustled through her garden, brushing through sunlight-dappled leaves.

"Why did you come find me in the cottage?" Lynet asked.

"Lyn," Seonaid said with a sigh.

She took a step closer, and her lips pressed against Lyn's, soft and sweet. Her fingers brushed against Lyn's cheek, and Lyn's breath stopped. She was surrounded by sunlight, surrounded by Seonaid's arms —  and she kissed Seonaid back.

The cottage bed was cramped; it wasn't made for two.

But they made it work.

* * *

"Send word to your crew," Lynet said firmly. She curled up beside Seonaid on the bed. "Any sailing they do will have to be without you until you're healed. You won't be any good to them if you can't hold a sword."

Seonaid opened her mouth and closed it. Lazily, she wound her fingers through strands of Lynet's hair, a look of consideration on her face.

"I have conditions," she said at last.

Lynet arched an eyebrow coolly. It was a look that she'd often found effective in negotiation during council meetings.

Seonaid pressed a kiss to Lynet's ear. Then, she let the kisses trail down to Lynet's jaw, along her throat, and then to her collarbone. Shivering, Lynet suppressed a whimper.

Seonaid grinned.

Apparently, Lynet wasn't the only one with negotiation tactics.

"If I'm going to be landlocked, then I want you to stay with me."

"I was planning to."

Seonaid's expression sobered. "And I don't want you to have someone keeping tabs on me any more. I'm not one of your projects, Lynet."

She must have seen the objection in Lynet's eyes, because she spoke faster. "If you want me minded, you can mind me yourself."

Lynet stared at her. "Are you offering me a space on your crew?"

There was a beat.

"I'd rather have you around than a gaggle of spies. And it'd make sense," Seonaid said. "You can collect your songs so much more easily that way. You have more of a memory for them than I do." She took a breath. “And -- “

Lynet shut her up with a kiss.

"Seonaid," she said, placing a hand against the woman's cheek. "All you had to say was yes."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Karios for the last-minute beta! Without your feedback, this would be a much poorer fic; all remaining mistakes are mine and only mine.


End file.
